The Model Railroad Thread

[Tyler]

I've been meaning to get some photos up of the Chicago Terminal's new (much more spacious!) home. I've also acquired some super-cheap Atlas turnouts from an antique store (they're in great shape, I don't think the owner realized what they were) and should be able to lay and wire track. Lately, though, I've been very distracted by real trains and Dominion - I need to get some posts up in those threads, too.

[Denny]

Against all odds, the hobbying presses onward!

You may or may not recall where my layout was at the time of my last update about two months ago:

Actual work on the layout is temporarily suspended due to some localized flooding in the basement but I did finally pick something up at Home Depot to try out for my backdrop--aluminum flashing, which I believe is actually used for roofing:

Backdrop flashing
The plan is to unroll and trim it, possibly nailing it to a thin piece of wood to keep it straight, paint it light blue using the cheapo craft paint from Michaels, then place it on the shelf behind the door for instant sky. I got the idea from a blog post at Lance Mindheim's site; we'll see how it goes.

Well, I have finally done the painting and mounting of the aluminum flashing backdrop, and I am a little underwhelmed by the results.

First, the painting itself was more of a hassle than I expected it to be. Because of the length of the unrolled flashing (ten feet) I had to take it outside where I actually had room to maneuver. It was still pretty unwieldy because it kept trying to roll itself back up rather than lay down flat; I nailed thin wooden furring strips along the bottom, where they would be hidden by the layout door and foam when mounted, but it was still hard to handle. I had to clamp it to the wooden tables I was using as my sawhorses to get it to hold still for the painting. Even then, because of the length and flexibility of the flashing, I had to do the painting in two phases; six feet on one day and the remaining four or so feet at a later time. I did a rather poor job of painting as well, in my opinion, leaving visible brush marks and also spots where the silvery aluminum still showed through. I had also hoped to subtly change the shade at different heights, starting out pure light blue at the top and adding more white as I moved down to the horizon, but I simply had no clue how to mix the paints to keep it even across the entire thing...so I just made the whole thing the same light blue color, just as it came out of the Michaels paint bottle.

After then wrestling the thing back down to the basement, I let it sit for a couple of weeks while I pondered my next move. I had to cut a couple of slices into the top of the backdrop so that it would fit around the mounting brackets for the upper valance. Finally I made some (rather inept) cuts with a pair of tin snips, and all was ready. I removed the door/foam, slid the upper valance shelf away from the wall, and manhandled the waving, vibrating "sky" into position.

I'm sorry that I have no photos of these previous steps. No, I take that back; I'm not sorry at all.

The upside, however, is that even a crappily done backdrop turns out to be miles better than no backdrop at all! Here is the newly applied backdrop behind a little posed diorama, with a mocked up grain elevator and some track and equipment plopped down on the foam:

Grain elevator with backdrop

Victory!

But in all seriousness, I think the aluminum backdrop idea turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. Now that it's in place I'm not getting rid of it, but I've recently read on another model railroading website that many people use (and are happy with!) long panels of .060"-thick styrene for their backdrops, and I think I'm going to try that when I get to the next layout section.

[Tyler]

Glad to hear your backdrop sort of works, Denny! I'll need to decide what I'm going to do about mine at some point, but thanks to the way I've built the table I can install one pretty much up until the final stages of scenery if I want to wait that long.

Now, where are those pictures I've promised of the Chicago Terminal's new home?

[Lions]

I did a rather poor job of painting as well, in my opinion, leaving visible brush marks and also spots where the silvery aluminum still showed through. I had also hoped to subtly change the shade at different heights, starting out pure light blue at the top and adding more white as I moved down to the horizon, but I simply had no clue how to mix the paints to keep it even across the entire thing...so I just made the whole thing the same light blue color, just as it came out of the Michaels paint bottle.

As I was reading this, I was expecting you to be using spray paint or at least a roller to apply the paint. That said, brush strokes can enhance artwork if they're used to intentionally apply texture. For example, you might consistently make horizontal brush marks in your sky to imply wind in the air, and use vertical brush strokes on land to imply grasses. You could even swirl your brush strokes in the sky for wind swirls. As for mixing colors, given that you were painting on a hard, non-porous surface, you might've considered mixing the paint directly on your "canvas". Apply the blue, then while it's still wet, plop some white down and blend it in with your brush. The more you spread it out, the more gradual the effect. You can use various stroking techniques to blend it. A little more white and you can even put a happy little cloud in there.

[Coqui]

A little more white and you can even put a happy little cloud in there.

No you didn't!



Seriously, I could watch The Joy of Painting for hours if it was still on the air.

[Denny]

A roller would have been a great idea--that didn't even occur to me. I did have the white paint outside with me, but I was struggling so much just with the blue that I didn't have the presence of mind to streak the white in.

Also....am I the only person who watched Bob Ross' Prussian precursor, Bill Alexander, instead? Ross even got the "happy little tree/cloud" thing from him!

[Lions]

I am too young to have seen Bill Alexander, but that was an interesting read. I'm not entirely surprised that Ross was more successful than Alexander. While not unprecedented in these types of relationships, it's a shame they had a falling out.